The past was different – never forget that when researching your family history. Don’t judge by the standards of today. Many records are only as accurate as the information provided by those giving it.
My father had always celebrated his birthday on 5th June. When he started tracing his family, and looked at the records, they showed 6th June. He was very upset, as he’d not got on well with his mother. “Couldn’t even get my birthday right!”
However, consider the circumstances at the time. He was born in 1924, the youngest of three children in a working class family living in Colliers Wood, London, UK. In those days women had their children at home, sometimes with the assistance of a midwife or district nurse, and had a fourteen day “laying in” after a birth, literally not being allowed out of bed.
Working class fathers didn’t get time off, no matter that he may have got very little sleep, may have been attempting to look after his two young daughters, and may have had all the worries that a prospective father still has today. My grandfather, William Ernest Easter, worked at the local gas works. Here he is, with his spanner, ready to maintain those mysterious machines that surround him.
Because of all these circumstances,perhaps they were a day late in registering the birth because of that, and lied about the birth date to avoid a possible fine. They may however have been in time – 42 days are, and were then, allowed in England to register a birth – and simply have been confused over the date. Although that doesn’t explain why they always celebrated on the 5th June rather than the 6th June if that was the correct date.
Easter Family Genealogy 